Immanuel Sermon Audio
Luke 8:22-39
Grab your Bible. Find the Gospel of Luke. If you didn't bring one with you this morning, there should be one in front of you, in the seat in front of you. Gospel of Luke. There is an outline in the bulletin. If you like to follow along on the outline, you can do that. Gospel of Luke, this morning we are in chapter 8. Our theme verse for the entire gospel is Luke 19-10, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." That is a verse that is very meaningful in the stories that we're going to look at this morning. Let me just remind you a little bit of where we've been in Luke. For those of you who maybe are new with us this morning or it's been a while since we've been in Luke, "The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost." The first few chapters in Luke talk about the word came. How did he come? He came to do something. Well, how did that happen? In the first few chapters in Luke talk about the coming of the Son of Man. We know that as the Christmas story and you find it in the first couple of chapters of Luke's gospel. The next few chapters in the Gospel of Luke focus on the identity of the Son of Man. So the first few chapters say, "How did he come?" The next group of chapters, the ones that we're in right now say, "Well, who is he?" The Son of Man came to do something. We know how he came. That's the Christmas story, but who is this guy Jesus? What am I to believe about who he is in his identity? In this section of Luke that we're in talks about that and we're sort of building a description or you could say building a profile for who Jesus is. Who is the Son of Man? And it's fascinating that in our passage this morning, Luke 8 22 to 39, at one point the disciples just ask that question openly, "Who is this?" That's kind of a strange question for somebody that you're following around. Who is this guy? They don't even have a category for it. Who is the Son of Man? And then it's fascinating that just a page turned later, a paragraph later, we find demons saying exactly who he is. The disciples scratching their heads, "Who is this guy?" And the demons saying, "This is who he is." All in this section of Luke that are describing for us the identity of the Son of Man. Now, before we jump in and read the passage, let me give you what I think is the big idea of these verses that we're about to look at. The big idea of this passage is this. Jesus seeking and saving the lost has a personal dimension. It has a corporate dimension and it has a cosmic dimension. Okay? Jesus seeking and saving the lost has a personal dimension. Number one, it has a corporate dimension. Number two, and it has a cosmic dimension. Number three, it is amazingly good news that there is a personal dimension to Jesus coming to seek us and save us. What I mean by that is on the cross Jesus took your place and he took your punishment. He died bearing the wrath of God that should have fallen on you. That is personal. He took your place. Now sometimes we get a little bit confused. My guess is if you've been in church very long, you've heard of a pastor at some point say something like this. Remember this is not your pastor speaking. This is some other pastor speaking. It says something like this, "Oh you know Jesus, he just, he just, he loves you so much. He would have died for you if it was only for you. If it was just for you, he would have taken your place." Yes, it is personal. He really did take your place, but I'm gonna suggest to you that that's just not a very helpful way to think about the cross. It's just speculation because it's not just personal. It's also corporate. He didn't just die for you. That's the reality. Would he have? I don't know. What I do know is that he didn't. He died for you personally as a follower of Jesus Christ. Yes, he took your place, but he also died for you all, for us, for the church. And we've been talking about that in our previous series when we talked about I am a church member. What does it mean to be a church member? It means in part, treasuring church membership because we understand that Jesus purchased the church, not just you, the church, not this building, the church with his blood. Mark 945, "The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life is a ransom for many." Acts 2028, Paul talking to the leaders in the church in Ephesus when he leaves and he says to them, "Take care. Watch over this flock because Jesus bought it, this flock, this church, this body." He paid for it with his blood. So on the one hand, there's a personal dimension, right? You and Jesus are involved, but it's not just you and Jesus, it's bigger than that. It's Jesus in his church, he bought the church, and if you can have a spot for this in your brain without thinking I'm too crazy, it's even bigger than the church. Because when I say Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, I mean he came to seek and to save all that was lost in the fall, and to put things, all things back right the way God intended them to be. And so you sort of get your thinking pad out and you say, "Well, what did we lose in the fall?" Just a few thoughts, we lost people, we lost our relationship with God, we lost life, we lost relationships with other people, we lost order in nature, right? Chaos is introduced, we lose peace, we lose hope, we lose all kinds of stuff in Genesis 3, and Jesus coming to seek and to save the lost. It does involve you as an individual, but it also involves us as a church, and it's even bigger than that, it's Jesus coming to save and to set right all that has gone wrong because of sin, right? So there is a personal dimension, there's a corporate dimension, and there is a cosmic dimension. And I think in these two stories you see all of those play out in different ways, and so I hope it's plain to you as we read through this story and talk about it. Look in your Bible and let's just read Luke 8 chapter 8 verse 22, we're gonna read to verse 39, the Word of God says this, "One day he got in a boat with his disciples," and he said to them, "let's go across to the other side of the lake," so they set out. And as they sailed, he fell asleep, obviously we're talking about Jesus. A windstorm came down on the lake and they were filling with water and they were in danger. And they went and they woke him saying, "Master, master, we're perishing," and he awoke and he rebuked the wind and the raging waves and they ceased and there was a calm. He said to them, "Where is your faith?" And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, "Who then is this?" That he commands even winds and water and they obey him. Then they sailed to the country of the garrisings, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on the land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, he fell down before him and he said with a loud voice, "What have you to do with me? Jesus son of the Most High God. I beg you, do not torment me." For he, Jesus, had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert. Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Legion," for many demons had entered him and they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside and they begged him, they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and they were drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and they told it in the city and in the country. Then the people went out to see what had happened and they came to Jesus and they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the demon possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasines asked him to depart from them for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man with man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him but Jesus sent him away saying return to your home and declare how much God has done for you. And he went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. Let's pray. Father we come to your word and we want to come humbly. Father we come expectantly believing that these words are true, believing that your word has power. And Father just as you have put breath in our lungs so that we can sing to you we pray that you would put in our minds and our hearts and understanding and a willingness to accept and to respond to your word this morning. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Two pretty simple stories really not complicated but as I read them this week there were some questions that came to mind lots of questions and I narrowed it down to five and I think they're good questions and you notice I didn't give you any blanks for these questions and what I'm saying there is I'm gonna give you what I think are the answers but these are tricky questions and these are things you really kind of have to wrestle around within your mind and try to make sense of and so we're gonna walk through the passage asking some of these questions trying to give some answers and then we'll sum it up at the end it starts with Jesus and he sends his crew across in a boat across the Sea of Galilee so here's the Sea of Galilee picture on the left is from Google Earth if you want to know what it looks like from space that's it okay Sea of Galilee and over on the right is the sea one part of the sea and some cliffs or some hills or you could call them small mountains around the sea this is typical around the Sea of Galilee the topography that you see is what you would expect and I know nothing about weather but people who know things about weather say that this is a perfect place for storms to pop up quickly and then to go away quickly and the wind comes rushing down these hills and combines with the warm air and the cool air whatever happens it happens and storms just pop up on this lake all the time now you got to remember that these guys were fishermen and so they were used to being on this lake and they were used to these kinds of storms but Luke describes this storm is pretty serious because he says they were filling with water he doesn't mean they were drinking water he means the boat is filling with water and they're thinking we're gonna die the reality is sometimes the storms that pop up on the Sea of Galilee have hurricane force winds okay serious storms so I thought about hurricanes this week I thought about my wife when I thought about hurricanes a couple years ago we went to celebrate our 10-year anniversary we were so excited 10 years marriage that's pretty good and so we said let's take a trip leave the kids at home we planned this big trip we went to Cancun and it was great stated an awesome resort then I mentioned we had no kids 10-year anniversary is great only one problem we got married during hurricane season so there we are in Cancun and Hurricane Ernesto comes right over the top of our hotel I hate hurricanes that's the only one I've been in I hate all of them I don't like them beach was closed couldn't even couldn't even walk on the beach they had the whole thing roped off is miserable but here's these guys in the boat right I don't know if it was hurricane force winds I know it was a serious enough storm that seasoned fishermen together seasoned fishermen don't like to sound like wimps you ever been fishing with guys who really know how to fish it doesn't matter how scared or how bad things are going whatever they want to sound like they're in control they know what's going on oh you can't kid no one could catch fish this is to be expected oh this wind isn't that bad we can make it back oh it's not that cold we'll stay out here these guys are screaming like little kids we're gonna die we are going to die it was a serious storm and so I look at this in the first question I have is in the middle of all of it Jesus is asleep these guys think they're about to die Jesus has taken a nap question one why was Jesus sleeping on the boat in the middle of the storm there's not really a specific answer given in the passage so again I didn't give you a blank but I think the only thing you can surmise or deduce here is that he was exhausted that's the only thing I can come up with he'd been preaching he'd been teaching he'd been walking around he'd been healing people he'd been casting out demons he was very very popular and so there were a lot of demands on his life and demands on his time and the bottom line is he was really tired and you look at this in your mind that Jesus was really man he's not like God walking around in a man's suit pretending to be man he was God who really became man and he's exhausted and so he lays down and he's sleeping on the boat and he's sleeping in the storm and the disciples say hey we're gonna die we're gonna die wake up and Jesus gives him a very mild rebuke but it's a rebuke he gets up in first he rebukes the wind and the waves and he tells them to stop and they stop and then secondly he rebukes the disciples and he says what where's your faith where is your faith and the disciples hear that question and all they can come up with is who are we walking around with did you see that that was serious storm that was serious wind the rain was really filling the boat up and the waves were really crashing over the edges and he just told it to quit in it quit who is this that the wind in the waves obeying here's my second question and I think this is a trickier question why were the disciples so amazed that Jesus could control the weather why were they so amazed Jesus gives them this rebuke and he says where is your faith and what he's saying is come on guys seriously you don't think I can handle this and so I just went back in Luke and I looked up some of the things the disciples have seen Jesus do they saw Jesus bring in a miraculous ketchup fish when he first called some of these guys to follow him remember that nets were breaking it was a miracle they fished all night they saw that they also saw Jesus with an angry mob in Nazareth ready to kill him just passed through their midst and we've talked about that story I have no idea what happened there but they saw that they saw a mob of people ready to murder Jesus and he just walked right through the middle of them they saw Jesus cast a demon out of a man in the synagogue remember Jesus is preaching and the man pops up and he says I know who you are you're the only one of God and Jesus cast the demon out of him immediately they saw that they saw Jesus heal a leper they saw Jesus here heal a paralytic they saw Jesus heal a man whose hand was crippled they saw Jesus healed a servant of a centurion and they saw Jesus raised the widow son from the dead up to this point they've seen all that with their eyes and here they are Jesus does something else amazing and what do they say they say who is this guy they're amazed that someone would be able to do this and so the question is why did that amaze them they had seen some pretty amazing stuff the dead brought back to life the fish in the net and they're amazed that he can control nature I have two guesses number one these guys are a lot like we are meaning they're dense spiritually they're just slow to get it right you kind of get this impression when you read through the gospels they just don't get it all the way through and it's easy for us to throw rocks at these guys in the gospel Luke and say you idiots you didn't come on pay attention were you not looking when the fish jumped in the net or you're not paying attention when that dead boy got back up come on we're pretty dense too if we're honest so these guys are a lot like us that's one thing that rolls through my mind here's another thing that rolls through my mind I think these guys knew their old testament I think they knew it better than we do and they knew that in the Old Testament time and time again God is described as the only one who can control the elements and I can give you all kinds of verses for this let me just give you a few from the book of Psalms okay jot these down you can look them up later 65 5 to 7 89 9 10 6 9 107 23 to 29 all of these look this is a small sample all of them say basically this God and God alone controls the weather he doesn't share that right with anyone else the idols can't do it man can't do it only God can do it and so you come back to the question you say why were the disciples so amazed that Jesus could control the weather look this is a lot for these guys to take in on the one hand they see Jesus taking a nap because he's tired that's the only answer I can come up with he's really tired he's exhausted he's sleeping in the middle of a storm through the storm he's a man and then they see him wake up from his nap and control the weather now in my mind people who need to take naps are probably not going to be able to control the weather and people who can control the weather probably don't need a lot of naps and they're trying to put this together and the question they come up with is a pretty good question let's not be too hard on him who is this guy are you serious right now he's so tired he can't wake up for the storm and then he just tells the storm to go away who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him so they cross the lake get to the other side of the lake and immediately they're met by a man who is demon possessed and this to me is just I think Luke has a good sense of humor right he didn't have to include these details the way he did but he did and I think it's funny here's the disciples getting off the boat looking at each other saying under their breath oh is this guy we should have we should have done a background check we should have vetted this guy more carefully this is really weird this is who is it who is it here come the demons to tell you man with the demons runs right up to him you know the only person in the gospels the only people in the gospels who always know who Jesus is when he shows up demons they always know and the guy runs up to Jesus and he falls down and he basically says I know who you are please don't torture me please don't torment me they know that he has the right to do that and they're begging please don't torment me the man himself is being tormented you might take note he lives alone he doesn't wear clothing he can't be bound with chains he lives in a cemetery he is in every way shape or form in every conceivable fashion a social pariah he is under true and genuine torment and the demons tormenting him come before Jesus and have the nerve to say please don't torment us I'm guessing that we live in North America most of you have never encountered anybody who was genuinely demon possessed I don't know that I have either but there has been one time in my life where I was around an individual and the thought popped into my mind almost instantly one of two things is true either this guy is really stoned out of his mind or he's possessed by demons and I'll be honest enough to tell you he could have just been on drugs but it was one of those two I guarantee it and can I tell you what I felt in that situation a little bit of fear to be around someone that you genuinely thought they might be demon possessed so here's Jesus the napper just telling the wind and the waves to be quiet and here comes a demon possessed man running straight for him meets him immediately he's naked do you know what that word means in the Bible means he was naked and he runs up to Jesus this is a guy who cannot be bound with chains who lives in the tombs other gospels tell us he used to cut himself used to injure himself so he looks terrible and he's screaming at the top of his lungs and he falls down in front of Jesus Jesus doesn't even flinch you can just almost picture it he's just standing there just waiting for the guy to get there he falls down on his knees please don't torment me I know who you are you're the son of God please don't torment me everyone is terrified mark tells us in his gospel that the herd of pigs over here is 2,000 strong Luke just says it was a big herd okay there's a lot of pigs right over here and the man with the demon looks at Jesus and he says this is so weird admit it it's weird please don't cast the demons out of us can we go into the pigs instead please and for some reason Jesus talks back to the demon and they have this back and forth about his name and different stuff and eventually Jesus gives them permission when they're begging to go into these pigs the demons go into the pigs the pigs go off the cliff the pigs die in the sea that's weird right right here's a question just one of many why did Jesus let the demons negotiate their move to the pigs why let me tell you some onlys here okay this is the only exorcism story in the Bible that involves multiple demons in one person at one time is the only exorcism story in the Bible where Jesus has a conversation with the demons usually he just says scat and they scat there's a back and forth is the only demon possession story in the Bible where the demons enter animals and then something really bad happens right this is a odd odd story and you got a wrestle with this why did Jesus do this let me give you some possibilities I came across this week there's a guy named Bertrand Russell you ever heard of this guy Bertrand Russell he lived a long time ago and every picture I found of him online he had a pipe in his mouth so that wasn't just cherry-picked because he liked to smoke a pipe he was an atheist he did not believe in God and he wrote a book a long time ago and the book was titled this is very subtle why I'm not a Christian okay and in the book I haven't read it but I've read about it this last week I did a little digging on it a bunch of lousy reasons why he's not a Christian stupid stuff one of them is kind of interesting one of the reasons famed philosopher atheist Bertrand Russell was not a Christian is this story about the demons in the pigs that story is in the book and he says listen you're telling me that you want me to follow and believe and love and worship a guy who would take a bunch of demons from a guy and send them into an innocent bunch of pigs knowing that the poor pigs are gonna run over the cliff and die and the men who owned the two thousand pigs that's a lot of pigs those men are gonna be out and Jesus doesn't offer to pay them back seriously you want me to believe in that guy I'm out I don't believe one reason why I'm not a Christian now can I be honest with you there's other people who do claim to be Christians who are still embarrassed by this story because it's a weird story here's one person William Barkley okay William Barkley was a liberal Christian theologian and by liberal I don't mean Democrat I mean liberal in theological views is a liberal Christian theologian and in his commentaries I study his commentaries every week because sometimes he says some things and I think that is that is dead on brilliant I never connected those dots and then sometimes he says things that make me say you are the biggest bonehead that I've ever read in my entire life he doesn't believe in any miracles no miracles he explains very carefully away every miracle story in the gospels and so I was curious to see how you can explain this one the demons and the man and the chains and and the pigs and the over the edge and all this stuff here's so here's Williams Barkley William Barkley's explanation you ready he says the man really believed he was possessed by a demon he really thought he had demons in him okay we know that he was mental because there is no such thing as demons but he really had this conviction that he was demon possessed inner Jesus Jesus knows a lot of stuff so Jesus isn't fooled that this man has demons in him Jesus knows better but how are you gonna try to reason with a crazy person right it doesn't work and so he says is Jesus is standing there trying to figure out what to do the guy's screaming and making a commotion and he spooks the herd of pigs and the pigs stampede over the cliff and the pigs die in the water and here's opportunistic Jesus over here who says ha I got it I'm gonna trick him and he tells the guy hey dude I just sent those demons into the pigs they're not with you anymore look that's what happens the demons left you they went into the pigs and Barkley says the story was so convincing in the setting and how it all happened that the man just the light bulb goes off and he says huh demons are gone they went in the pigs well can I have some clothes that's Barkley's explanation so I'm just giving you options this morning okay you can go with Mr. Russell and you can say this story is reason not to follow Jesus or you can go with Mr. Barkley and you can say it's just sort of prescientific superstitious nonsense and Jesus knew better but he's just playing along with their game and he was opportunistic found a way to convince this man that he was healed or you can take the story seriously for what it says and you're gonna remind yourself that the guy writing this story is not some superstitious uneducated hick he's a trained physician he's not quick to believe just anything and he writes this story down just like Mark writes it down and they really believed that this happened and so you come back to this question why did Jesus let the demons negotiate their move into the herd of pigs you ready for my answer I have no idea there's a lot of suggestions and explanations and this and that and the other and I had a big list of them and I thought we could go through the list listen I don't know I don't know I have no clue why Jesus did this sort of thing here and only here not in any other stories that we know about here's what I do know you're ready he's the most famous pigs that ever lived you say what about the three little pigs no these guys were around way before the three little pigs and these pigs lived and died to display the power and the glory of Jesus can we agree on that in their life and their death they're pointing people to the power in the glory of Jesus and they're helping to answer the question that the disciples are asking who is this man in these pigs are telling us this is the man who has control over the demons that's who he is they lived and they died to point people to Jesus and to show his glory they also are a picture right they're a preview of the judgment awaiting these demons one day sometimes we have in our minds that hell is a place where Satan and the demons are in charge and if you end up there they're gonna torture you wrong hell is a place where people who don't know Jesus will spend eternity but where Satan and his demons are also spending eternity separated from Jesus being punished for their rebellion they're not running anything down there and these pigs give a small preview of what awaits them in the future when they go to the abyss so the pigs go over the cliff the folks go back to town they tell everybody what happened everybody comes out they see the man and Luke says he is now clothed and he is sitting down with Jesus and he is in his right mind and everyone who sees it is terrified and here's another mind boggler they beg Jesus to leave please go away go back where you came from here's the next question why did the people of this region beg Jesus to leave their town Luke says that they were terrified they were afraid say what were they afraid of maybe some people say they were afraid that they would lose more pigs maybe they thought the rest of their herds were about to go take a swim some people say no they were they were just afraid of Jesus was somebody with that much power they'd never encountered anything like that they were so terrified I don't really know how to make sense of this other than to say they begged Jesus to leave and I think what you have here is a picture of the parable we talked about last week remember the farmer sowing the seed and some of the seed the first one remember falls on the path it is not that the seed is lacking in power it's just that it falls on a hard heart and Satan is involved in deception in blinding the eyes of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the power of the gospel in Jesus Christ 2 Corinthians 4 4 and they see this display of Jesus's power and they have the opportunity to sit at his feet with the man who had been possessed by the demon and to listen to him and to ask him questions and instead all that these people from town can come up with is will you please go away please leave and Jesus gives them what they asked for he packs up and he leaves and as he's leaving it's now turned or now it's time for the man who was possessed by a demon to beg right a lot of begging going on in this passage disciples begging Jesus to wake up and the demons begging Jesus not to send them into the abyss and the people begging Jesus to leave their town and now the man comes and he begs Jesus and what he says is please let me go with you I am begging think about this he's not just saying hey can I come he's begging Jesus please let me come with you and Jesus says what no why don't you stay here go back home and tell everybody what God's done for you this is my last question why did Jesus tell the demoniac to stay home instead of following him from the perspective of the man Jesus had something for him to do and it was not following him around with the disciples and the women who were supporting him he had a different job for him Jesus has different jobs for different people Jesus has something for you to do that is not for me to do Jesus has things for me to do that are not for you to do and Jesus just tells the guy look that's not what I need you to do what I need you to do is go home and tell all the people you know what God has done for you that's from the perspective of the man but look at it from the perspective of the city of the people from town they just begged the sinless Son of God to leave and never come back and Jesus says okay I'll leave and as far as we know in the gospels he never goes back Jesus never visits this place again but he doesn't leave them without a witness and even as he leaves and he knows that he's not coming back he's saying to these people even in your hardness of heart I'm gonna show you grace and I'm leaving but I'm gonna leave someone here who can tell you and remind you about what I what I've done and who I am and the power that I have and that man was a reminder even though Jesus was gone and he never came back they had a reminder every day in town they saw this guy they thought Jesus did that Jesus did that that happened when Jesus was here look how different this guy is he's totally his life is completely changed in every way in Jesus is the only answer for that so he doesn't leave these people without a witness here's the main question in the passage just to try to sum up these stories who is this man that's the question driving this section that's a question driving this passage here's a couple of answers number one Jesus created nature he's a creator Jesus now controls nature he's the sovereign one who rules it all and Jesus will cleanse nature and I hope you understand what I'm saying there he's the creator who made it in the beginning he's the one who rules over it even now and he's the one in coming to seek and save the lost yes he came to seek you as an individual and his blood purchased us as a church but he's also fixing and finding and restoring everything that was lost in the fall and you get one small preview of an out-of-control chaotic storm and Jesus speaks into it and he says what stop it and it's calm and there's peace and that's a picture of what Jesus is going to do to all of creation in all of nature one day he created nature he controls nature he will cleanse nature what about the demons well he created the demons he made them he controls them now and he will crush them you got to be careful here you got to remind yourself that he did not create them as demons he created them as angelic beings but even in their rebellion they cannot escape the fact as much as they hate it they can never escape the fact that Jesus is their creator and so when they encounter him when they see him on the earth they say over and over and over again we know who you are everyone else is confused we know exactly who you are please don't torment us because they know that one day he will crush them the Bible talks about that in several places in the New Testament that one day this satanic demonic rebellion will be squelched every knee on the earth above the earth below the earth every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord and it will bring glory to the Father some will do it willingly and joyfully some will do it being forced into submission but all of them will bow who is Jesus he's the one who created nature who controls nature who is in the process of cleansing nature these are one who created the demons all things he controls the demons now and he will crush the demons one day in the future what do you do how do you respond 3 simple suggestions straight out of the text number one fear fear Luke weaves this story together in a great way and he talks about the disciples when the storm is raging and they are afraid they're terrified and then he goes out of his way to say it's all calm everything's quiet and they're terrified the object of their fear has changed but they're still very much afraid and he describes these towns people these people were terrified of this demoniac you would be too if there was a naked man running around town that you couldn't bind with chains cutting himself living out at the cemetery you'd be afraid to go to a funeral they're fearful and then they see the man clothed sitting with Jesus in his right mind everything's good and the people look at it and they're afraid the object object of their fear has again changed but they are still very much afraid listen I talked to you about this over and over in the gospel of Luke do not try to domesticate Jesus do not try to bring him down to your level where you can fully wrap your arms around him or or control him or think you've got him figured out be afraid be fearful number two believe have faith and this is Jesus question to the the guys in the boat where's your faith after everything that you've seen where is your faith and you sit here this morning and you say yeah but you know those guys saw all that stuff they should have believed I haven't seen any of that stuff it's a lot harder for me to believe and I think if the disciples could enter that conversation the disciples would say look you're on the other side of the cross you have the New Testament to explain to you everything that Jesus did and living and dying for you and raising rising from the dead and all the great things he did in the church you have church history to look at the gates of hell have not prevailed against the church despite Satan's attempt to destroy it at every turn what more do you need to see to believe and we look at those guys and we say man if I had seen that stuff then I could believe and I think they would look at us and say man if I had this then I could believe and so the question very simply is where is your faith do you believe the last thing you need to do is this tell tell the 12 eventually get sent out to tell the world that's what Jesus had for them to do the man who Jesus healed and and cast these demons out of him he was sent to tell his family and his people in his hometown he was never sent to India he never went on a mission trip to Kenya he never did any of those things that was not what God had for him to do but he was still expected to tell I have no idea what God's specific plan is for you in your life I don't know if he wants you to pack up sell everything you have and go to Kenya I don't know if he wants you to trade in the farm and move to China I don't know if he wants you to stay right here and live in Odessa and keep your job and be a good mom or be a good oil field worker or be a good teacher or a good nurse or whatever is you do whether you go or you stay Jesus is saying to you tell tell them who I am tell them everything that God has done for you open your mouth whether you go across the street around the world and tell somebody what God has done let me pray for you and we'll worship father we're grateful for your word and we look at these stories and father I know that I look at them and my mind just doesn't have a category for some of the things that we read and we're so familiar with these stories that sometimes we forget and we fail to see what what's actually happening but father these are amazing stories and there is part of us that longs for the opportunity to walk on this earth with Jesus and to have witnessed these things firsthand but father we're grateful that we have something more sure and more certain than experience and that's the written word of God father give us eyes to see give us hearts to receive ears to hear father let us not be like these people in this village that encountered Jesus in a real way and begged him to leave father we want to tremble before you we want to see Jesus in all his glory not brought down to our level we want to be people who have faith and who believe and trust and father we want to be bold and telling as we stand here as we sit here this morning we acknowledge that we need your help for all of those things to happen and so we look to you to do a work in our life and we ask you to make us into the kind of people into the kind of church that you would have us to be we ask for these things in Jesus